Link Centre Dictionary

sullen

sul·len

UK/ˈsʌlən/ US/ˈsʌlʌn/ uncommon archaic obsolete

adjective

1.

showing a brooding ill humor

  • “a dark scowl”
  • “the proverbially dour New England Puritan”
  • “a glum, hopeless shrug”
  • “he sat in moody silence”
  • “a morose and unsociable manner”
  • “a saturnine, almost misanthropic young genius” Bruce Bliven
  • “a sour temper”
  • “a sullen crowd”
2.

darkened by clouds

  • “a heavy sky”

Origin

From Middle English soleyn, from Anglo-Norman soleyn (“alone”), from Old French sole (“single, sole, alone”), from Latin sōlus (“by oneself alone”). The change in meaning from "single" to morose occurred in Middle English.

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.